The present invention relates to a heat dissipating apparatus for circuit boards and particularly a heat dissipating apparatus mounted onto a circuit board (processor circuit board or interface card) for dispersing heat generated by the elements on the circuit board.
In computer products, heat dissipation is a problem that often baffles users. The computers often malfunction or not able to operate due to overheating. Thus heat dissipation has become a critical issue most vendors are trying to resolve. Conventional heat dissipation apparatus include radiation sheets, air fans and heat transfer tubes. The radiation sheet usually has a plurality of metal fins located on one side thereof to reduce the temperature of computer devices. The commonly used one is a passive radiation sheet. It can generate convection or does not need additional airflow to disperse heat. The radiation sheet mainly aims at increasing the radiation area. While the radiation sheet can increase the radiation area, heat energy still has to be discharged by airflow in the surroundings. The air fan aims at improving heat discharge. In general, the air fan generates airflow to carry heat energy away from the radiation sheet. The heat transfer tube is an advanced technique adopted on electronic devices. It is made from pure oxygen-free copper tubes and copper meshes filled with pure water or acetone as working fluid. The fluid at the heat receiving end is vaporized to become vapor phase. The vapor flows in the hollow tube to a cooling end to be cooled and condensed to the fluid phase again. The condensate is seeped and returns to the heat receiving end through a capillary structure in the copper mesh to complete the heat absorption and discharge cycle. By means of the phase changes of the working fluid, a great amount of heat energy can be transferred by a small temperature difference. However, all the heat dissipation techniques mentioned above neglect to discharge heat energy outside the machine casing. As a result, the discharged heat energy still remains inside the machine casing, and heat dissipation is not very effective.
Therefore the primary object of the invention is to resolve the aforesaid disadvantages. The invention provides a heat dissipation apparatus mounting onto a circuit board and through an airflow generator to suck in clean and cool air from outside or within the computer casing and to discharge extra heat energy generated by the circuit board through an opening formed on a metal plate located at the rear side of the circuit board outside or in the computer casing so that heat generated by the circuit board won""t be trapped inside the computer casing or the circuit board. As the clean and cool air is drawn from outside or inside the machine casing, operation temperature of the circuit board may be reduced and heat dissipation may be achieved effectively, and operation stability of the circuit board can be ensured and service life can be improved.
In order to achieve the foregoing object, the heat dissipation apparatus of the invention includes a heat transfer plate, at least one heat transfer tube located on the heat transfer plate, a first radiator located on the heat transfer plate, a shell mounted onto the heat transfer plate, an airflow generator located in the shell, at least one latch member latching on the heat transfer plate, and a filter located on the shell. The heat transfer plate absorbs thermal energy and transfers to the heat transfer tube. The heat transfer tube transfers the thermal energy to the first radiator. The airflow generator sucks in air to discharge heat to achieve the heat dissipation object.